Informal Urbanization and What We Can Learn From Them

In my report, I would like to learn more about cities that have an abundance of informal urbanization; favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, slums in Dharavi, India and gecekondus in Istanbul, Turkey are just a few examples of the different names of the same type of low-cost housing which is home to a large number of the population of those cities. I want to investigate the reasons behind people congregating in those areas and living the way they do; also, I’d like to learn about the problems they face and how these problems occur, and use the information I found in my project, as well as find solutions to try to avoid these problems occurring in my city. I would like to examine what social, economic or political problems these 3 cities have in common and if those commonalities are the reasons they live in these slums, or shanty towns. I want to find out how people that live in makeshift housing and navigate through the seemingly chaotic clutter of houses upon houses without the use of formal grids and numbering systems. I would also like to look into building sustainable cities and using collaborative efforts to make their cities more efficient or getting the most they can out of their situation.

I think the information to compile my thesis and project would be found in many different media, such as film, books, plans and drawings of precedent and future projects, models and any other material I can find which would assist my research.

A rough draft of my table of contents might be like this:

Table of Contents

· Introduction………………………………….…page 1

· Rio de Janerio………………………………..…page 2

· Favelas……………………………………….…page 3

o Building…………………………..……page 4

o Social environment…………….………page 5

o Effect on an urban scale….………….…page 6

· Dharavi………………………………….…....…page 7

· Slums………………………………….……..…page 8

o Building……………………………..…page 9

o Social environment……………….……page 10

o Effect on an urban scale……….………page 11

· Istanbul……………………………………...…page 12

· Gecekondu…………………………………..….page 13

o Building………………………….……page 14

o Social environment……………………page 15

o Effect on an urban scale………………page 16

· Conclusion………………………….……….…page 17

· Bibliography……………………………..….…page 18

· Appendix…………………………………….…page 19

o Images……………………………….page 20

o Videos…………………………………page 21

Rough Bibliography:

Books

· Mehta, Suketu. “Maximum City”, Knopf,2004

· Neuwirth, Robert. “Shadow Cities”, Routledge 2005

· Davis, Mike. “Planet of Slums” Verso, 2007

· Fabricus,Daniela. “Informal Cities”, www.favelabook.org

Film

· Favela Rising, Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochery, ICA Projects, 2006

· Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle, Pathe Distribution Ltd,2009